some sessions with the junior section and some with the seniors.
On the 1st April 2005 it was announced that Clevedon House School was to close and we and a number of other sports organisations in Ilkley were without a venue. Relocating 150 children to do athletics requiring a large indoor area proved to be very difficult and the junior section could easily have folded. Ilkley Grammar School came to our rescue and in September 2005 we restructured the junior section to have SHA sessions for primary school children on a Thursday and upper school children on a Monday with outdoor athletics on the IGS playing fields in the summer. The ‘running only’ speed/endurance session moved to ILT&SC on a Wednesday and our Saturday running sessions moved to Ilkley Moor. By September 2007 we were coaching 7 hours a week having introduced a specific Track & Field coaching session at IGS for children who were beginning to take their athletics a bit more seriously and the Saturday running session was opened up to parents and became a ‘Family Fell Run’. Since then we have had the enviable problem of increasing numbers and in order to accommodate as many children as possible new sessions have been introduced at Ghyll Royd School where their newly built sportshall has provided an additional venue for our sessions since September 2008.
Bringing us right up to date, in September 2010 we will be coaching 10 hours of Athletics every week to over 250 children with 17 qualified Level 1 or 2 coaches, 7 parent helpers, 6 older junior volunteers and 4 additional qualified coaches on stand by if needed for odd sessions.
In the next Newsletter, Shirley will discuss Junior Ilkley Harrier’s coaching structure..
ILKLEY HARRIERS NEWSLETTER • JULY–AUGUST 2010 25
JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP
We have never advertised the junior section beyond the first three ‘Come and Try it’ sessions at Clevedon House School in September 2002. The majority of our juniors come to us through word of mouth or through the initiatives that we have introduced in the community such as the Wharfedale Schools Cross-Country League. One or two look us up on the website.
Junior Ilkley Harrier membership has increased over the past eight years and just over thirty 16 year olds have progressed into the senior section in that time.
In 2002-2003 we had 60 children doing Sportshall Athletics with us. In 2003- 2004, the first year of JIH, there were 75 members. Since then, membership has steadily grown – 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010
107 121 160 188 246 274
Our increasing membership is a nice problem to have but it does require a bit of juggling each September to accommodate all the juniors and make sure we have enough coaches/helpers in the right place for the programme to run smoothly.
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